Why 2 color printing isn’t always cheaper than full color

A customer requested a quote for a full color booklet, and found it would cost more than they had budgeted. Hoping to reduce expense they requested switching to full color on one side of the sheet and black plus a match color on the reverse.

This change actually made the job more expensive. Here’s why: Adding the match color effectively turned a simple 4 color project into a 5 color job, requiring a larger press. It had been planned as “work and turn,” an efficient way of using the same plates to print first one side, then flipping the sheet and running it through the press again to complete the back. The two sides of the sheet were now set up differently, so work and turn was no longer an option.